Plants in Design I

Introduction:This course investigates plants as an essential medium of landscape design. Through lectures, readings, exercises, and field trips, the student builds a knowledge base of plants in design applications, principally in the northeastern United States. Emphasis is placed on critical practices of analysis, conceptualization, design, and implementation required to build and sustain healthy, meaningful landscapes.Pedagogic Objectives: To develop a passion for the value of plants as a design medium, including the qualities of individual plants, planted forms, and plant communities; the potentials of ordering and structuring space with plants; and the temporal issues that derive from seasonality, growth, and maturation of plants in design. To build on previous coursework in understanding plants as components of environmental systems, stressing the technical and cultural requirements of plants commonly used in landscape design: climatic and microclimatic conditions, soil moisture regimes, related plant associations, built contexts, environmental stresses, and maintenance practices. To explore the analytical and projective tools required for proficiency in the verbal and graphic description of planted space.Time Commitment:Dedicated class time, plus additional time as required for research, field study, and design exercises.